Krystal&nbspHarvey

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Full Name

Krystal Harvey

Background

A woman who sold footage of herself abusing a baby has been given a jail term after the Crown appealed her home detention.

Krystal Harvey, 23, was sentenced in January to eight months home detention and given 100 hours community service after pleading guilty to sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and making an objectionable publication.

It related to a publication the mother made of herself abusing a one-year-old which she sold to a male acquaintance for $300, which she used to buy herself a laptop.

The Crown has successfully appealed the sentence in the High Court.

According to the appeal judgment, Harvey had earlier in the same month agreed to supply nude photos of children in return for money and agreed to herself perform a sexual act upon the child.

Justice Edwin Wylie said in his decision that although the Crown argued she should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment, District Court sentencing Judge Philip Recordon had apparently accepted a defence submission that the offending was less serious because the victim was unlikely to remember it.

A number of other discounts were applied to the sentencing including provisions for her guilty plea and previous good character, which the Crown in their appeal argued had lead to a "manifestly inadequate sentence".

In his decision, Justice Wylie highlighted elements in which he believed Judge Recordon had erred in his sentencing, including his reliance on Harvey's psychological state, her claims that she had been pressured by the male acquaintance, and her opportunity for rehabilitation.

In his sentencing Judge Recordon said a year's home detention was "too long for anyone," which Justice Wylie said was "concerning".

"In summary, I am satisfied that the Judge's sentencing decision was in error," Justice Wylie concluded.

"The starting point adopted was too low, and the discounts allowed for mitigating features were too high. I am satisfied that the end sentence imposed by the Judge was wrong in principle, and manifestly inadequate."

He set aside the home detention sentence and instead imposed a term of three years and nine months' imprisonment.